Hidden local, quasi-local and non-local symmetries in integrable systems

The knowledge of non usual and sometimes hidden symmetries of (classical) integrable systems provides a very. powerful setting-out of solutions of these models. Primarily, the understanding and possibly the quantisation of intriguing symmetries could give rise to deeper insight into the nature nl held spectrum and correlation functions in quantum integrable models. With this perspective in mind we will propose a general framework for discovery and investigation of local, quasi-local and nan-local symmetries in classical integrable systems. We will pay particular attention to the structure or symmetry algebra and to the role of conserved quantities. We will also stress a nice unifying point of view about KdV hierarchies and Toda field theories with the result of obtaining a Virasoro algebra as exact symmetry of sine-Gordon model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.